


Wreckage

by goldenzingy46



Series: Soft Fics [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Battle of Hogwarts, Canon Compliant, F/M, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Light Angst, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Romance, asking for permission before you kiss someone, literally this is the softest thing I've ever written, slight angst, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24338797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenzingy46/pseuds/goldenzingy46
Summary: Neville finds Luna in the early hours of the Battle of Hogwarts. She turns him down.Hours later, the crumbled remains of Hogwarts are silent, and two people wish for different things.Or perhaps they aren't so different.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood
Series: Soft Fics [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091714
Comments: 15
Kudos: 12





	Wreckage

"I'm going to find Luna," Neville yells, voice caught by the wind, courage of the kind he'd never expected to feel burning through his veins, threatening to break open his skin. "I'm mad for her!"

He runs through the corridors, the _thud-thud-thud_ of feet on stone echoing as he chased after the bright flash of purple he could see. 

"Luna!"

Luna Lovegood pushed past people, going the opposite way to the flow, trying to ignore the snide remarks of her creatures around her.

"Luna!"

She turned, smiling. It was Neville! Neville was kind, and had never laughed at her, not once.

"Luna, I- I love you. If we survive this, would you-" he falters. "-Would you possibly go out with me?"

The Jabberwocky laughs, right by her ear. "Don't trust him!"

A Daquersnatch grasps her ankle and pulls, hissing, "He just wants to die being loved, he doesn't like you at all, stupid plant boy."

A Frintzferg yells from somewhere behind her, "She's dumb enough to say yes! Poor loony Luna Lovegood, played for a fool!"

Neville droops, for a second, and Luna's smile falters. They were right. He didn't want her, there was just no-one else. 

She pasted the smile back on her face. "I'm sorry, Neville, I just don't think we fit."

And then Luna turned and skipped away, humming, trying to ignore the laughter of the Jabberwocky as her heart shattered into a million pieces.

Neville told Luna that he loved her, and he saw her smile flicker and he knew she would say no. He felt himself break as she skipped away like she hadn't just destroyed his everything.

***

Neville dropped onto a broken rock, blood-covered sword clattering to the ground. 

They had won. Defeated Voldemort for once and for all, he had a heroic moment, and people even seemed to like him now.

But he didn't have Luna.

And so he sat on an abandoned stone, listening to the rain falling around him.

Luna fled as soon as she'd helped Harry. Sure, it'd hurt to pretend her creatures weren't real, but the look of gratitude on Harry's face before he'd left had been worth it.

She loved her friends.

The creatures, however, did not, and she ripped all of her jewelry off, letting the Nargles and the Wrackspurts laugh at her too.

  
Neville was a quiet person, and people didn't really notice him.

But he noticed things.

Like that scream.

Luna was a quiet person, and people didn't really pay attention to her.

Sometimes it made her want to scream.

Today she gave in.

Neville was running past rain-slick stones, struggling to see in the dark. The scream had sounded like Luna and he would not let her suffer that much pure anguish that had echoed in the scream.

He found her curled up in a ball, soaked through from the rain.

And, because he was Neville, he hung her necklace back around her neck and offered her her earrings, picking up bracelets and draping them onto her.

Then he hugged her.

And, because she was Luna and he was Neville, she buried her face in his chest and cried.

They would never be quite sure how long they stayed like that, but at one point Luna had stopped crying and they had stood, arms wrapped around eachother, watching the moon and the stars in the comfortable silence that was so Luna, so Neville.

And when the bright colours of the sunset began to slide above the horizon, Neville felt a squeeze to his arm.

"Can I kiss you?" Luna murmured, bright blue eyes wide and the tiniest of smiles dancing on her face, and Neville discovered that one truly could say the word yes rather fast.

And people returned to clean up Hogwarts, but two people stayed in the wreckage, the gentlest of kisses and feather-light touches and they watched the sun climb higher.

Because some people deserve a happy ending, no matter what the world throws at them.

Luna is one of these people.

And Neville is another.

**Author's Note:**

> You could... poke your head into my [Discord server](https://discord.gg/37bXdGW)? I don't bite (much)!
> 
> Alternately, you could pop into my mess of a Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46.tumblr.com/), or my writing Tumblr [here](https://goldenzingy46butwriteblr.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Comments and kudos sustain me :)


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